The past few years our annual Halloween display included fog effects augmented by the use of “chillers” to cool the output of the fog machines. This year we tried a new design for fog chillers. This is a little report on the differences, and why the new design was something of a disappointment.
This is just a simple notice to the retailers of America. Christmas is in December. Traditionally the holiday retails promotions begin around Thanksgiving. That’s early enough, ok?
Halloween is only just past and we’re seeing some signs that the retail transition to Christmas is beginning…Thanksgiving be damned.
Well, those of you who are overly eager to get on with the holiday shopping binge do so at your peril. I’m planting a stake in the ground. Jump start your Christmas promos much before Thanksgiving and your establishment will not be enjoying my custom.
Of course, I’m just one guy. But some near to me know just how fiscally irresponsible I can be, which often plays out in your favor. Consider yourselves warned.
Those of you carrying the Wal-Mart banner can ignore this little warning. As in the past ten holiday seasons we won’t be seeing each other. I don’t miss you. Do you miss me?
For a couple of years we used a service called Aussie Pet Mobile. This is a company that has Chrysler Sprinter vans nicely modified to perform pet grooming at your home. It’s a really good idea and we loved the service here in Houston. I think we used it from very early in the life of this particular franchise.
The service is simple enough. You call the local franchisee and book an appointment, then they come to the house and groom the pets. It’s fast and convenient. We always had a great experience with the field staff who came to do the work.
Not only do we stage a pretty good set of visuals for the Halloween kiddies, we support it with sound and lights, too. We usually have 2-3 kw of sound reinforcement fed by a couple of Logitech Squeezeboxes. It’s 3 or 4 pair of powered monitors like my Behringer B2031As and a couple of Behringer B2030A powered subwoofers. It’s not uber-high-end, but it’s clean and can get very loud when necessary.
The past couple of years I’ve been taking the easy route and using a simple mixed track that combines several commercial sound effects CDs for the season. They’re fine but I’ve always wanted to make it more musical, to mix the sounds effects with recognizable musical tracks.
My own tastes run toward Pink Floyd as appropriate for the night. That’s what I always play during the setup process. I’ve got everything they’ve ever recorded, including various symphonic remakes. I’ve also go the various members solo records, some of which seem appropriate.
However, Pink Floyd alone seems a little one-dimensional. I think that there may be value in crowd-sourcing ideas for the sound track. So I ask you; what would you pick as part of an ominous soundtrack for Halloween? All ideas welcome.
There’s two weeks before the big day so I need to start soon if I’m to get it done. If I actually get a custom mixed track assembled I’ll publish the playlist so you get a sense of what was done.
